The Family Album of Lucybelle Crater

Millerton, NY: Jargon Society, 1974. First Edition. Trade paperback. Very good. The book "consists of 64 portraits of "Lucybelle Crater"...played by Meatyard's wife Madelyn wearing a cheap dime-store mask...paired with various family members and friends wearing one of those transparent masks that have an aging affect on wearers... This book is, in a way, Meatyard's purest statement. He was dying, and didn't have time for a lot of nuances. It its forthrightness and its gothic loopiness, it manages to illuminate two truths simultaneously: that we are all the same, really; and that we are all different, under the masks"-from Roth's Book of 101 Books, page 230.

Text by Jonathan Williams, Ronald Johnson, Ralph Meatyard, Guy Mendes and Thomas Meyer. Illustrated with full-page halftone photographs. 84 pages. 8-15/16 by 10-7/16 inches. First edition (paperback issue; published in hardcover at the same time). One inch split at top of spine, minor soiling to covers; some lamination peel, as usual, else very good. Original $6.95 price sticker on back cover.